Historical Marker · No. 90
Fort Gunnybags
San Francisco, San Francisco County · California
The watching eye at the top of this bronze echoes the one on the Committee's own 1856 medallion, and the tablet keeps the Committee's name for the place: a warehouse walled with gunny sacks and cannon where suspects were held without due process. The Committee hanged four men that year and banished others, and the boxer Yankee Sullivan died in one of its cells. Sherman, who resigned his militia command over it, wrote that because they controlled the press, they wrote their own history. No state plaque stands here.
What the plaque says
Fort Gunny-Bags was situated on this spot Headquarters of the Vigilance Committee during the year 1856
Where it stands
37.79429, -122.39828 · Directions
More markers nearby
- Site of Ship Niantic — steps away
- Site of What Cheer House — 0.2 mi
- Shoreline Markers — 0.2 mi
- Long Wharf — 0.2 mi